Palestinian
workers collect scrap metal next to an Israeli settlement near the West
Bank city of Qalqilya, December 2006. (Magnus Johansson/MaanImages)

In August, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, the
international watchdog organization, asked three Israeli companies to
respond to a report by an Israeli non-governmental organization that
protested the treatment of Palestinian workers at West Bank settlement
industrial parks. Kav LaOved, which is concerned with the rights of
migrant and Palestinian workers employed in Israel and Israel's illegal
settlements, reported on the rising number of claims by Palestinian
workers employed in West Bank settlements following an October 2007
Israeli high court ruling that the country's labor laws applied in the
settlements.

Amongst the companies whose labor practices were criticized in the Kav
LaOved report was Royalnight, a textile manufacturer owned by Royalife.
In 2003, Royalife established a factory in the Barkan Industrial Park
located near the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank.
Royalnight's sheet sets, bed skirts, quilted blankets, and decorated
pillows are exported to and marketed in the United States and Europe.
According to Kav LaOved's report, Palestinian workers who come from all
over the West Bank have to work under poor health and safety conditions
at Royalnight's textile plant. To evade liability, work permits are
issued under the name of a different employer, and workers employed
through a Palestinian contractor are paid less.

In 1999, the United Nations Economic and Social Council criticized the
practice of Israeli companies, including most of those operating in the
Barkan park, moving their factories to the West Bank to escape the
higher health and environment standards applicable in Israel. Kav
LaOved states in its report that the Royalnight textile plant is no
different: "Health and safety standards are poor, the working
environment is noisy and the air is full of fabric dust. Most work is
carried out standing, and the workers take five minutes breaks at their
own expense."

The report adds: "[Workers] complain of exposure to dangerous cleaning
substances and of working near cutting machines lacking safety devices.
The company does not employ a Health and Safety official and the
workers have received no instructions or cautions regarding possible
dangers of operating machinery."

In an unsigned letter, Royalife replied to the Business and Human
Rights Centre's query and the allegations raised by Kav LaOved: "All
complaints are not correct. While Western Europe and the United States
moved the industry to countries like Pakistan, India, China, with much
lower labor costs, we tried to keep the textile industry in our region,
enabling income to the people who live in the area."

However, Kav LaOved writes that Barkan Industrial Park is "away from
the eye of the law. Israeli employers have found ways of evading the
high court ruling by for instance issuing pay slips with false
attendance reports. The normal practice is to register fewer working
days than those actually worked, so it appears that the minimum wage is
being paid." According to the report, "workers employed through a
Palestinian contractor are paid between six and eight shekels an hour,
whereas workers employed directly by the factory are paid between nine
and 11 shekels an hour." At the time of writing, 3.5 shekels was the
approximate equivalent to one US dollar.

Palestinian workers from the occupied territories were once widely
employed inside Israel. But following the Oslo Accords, Israel has
dramatically reduced the number of work permits issued to Palestinians
from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since April 2006, Gazans are no
longer able to receive work permits for employment inside Israel or its
West Bank settlements at all. Those in the West Bank who do receive the
permits find that they are only valid for three months at a time and
Israel's severe movement restrictions make it difficult for even
permit-holders to reach their places of employment.

Israel's closures have significantly contributed to rampant
unemployment and underemployment in the occupied West Bank and Gaza
Strip, where 33 percent and 80 percent of the population, respectively,
is dependent on international food assistance, according to an April
2008 report by the International Labour Organization. The World Bank has identified Israel's closure and movement restriction regime as a leading cause of the rapid deterioration of the Palestinian economy.

The dire economic situation means more Palestinians are forced to seek
work in Israel's illegal settlements, where they are vulnerable to
exploitation. Palestinian human rights organizations have reported that
Palestinian workers are coerced into collaboration with Israeli
security services to receive the permits necessary to work in the
settlements and inside Israel.

So far, Royalnight has gone unpunished for its profitable exploitation
of Palestinian workers in its settlement manufacturing plant. The goods
it exports are likely marked as "Made in Israel" even though the Barkan
Industrial Park where its sewing factory is located is built in
violation of international law on stolen Palestinian land. However,
there is a growing movement to hold companies like Royalife
accountable. Earlier this year Barkan Wineries terminated its lease at
the Barkan Industrial Park and moved its operations inside the
internationally-recognized boundary between the West Bank and Israel,
following a campaign against the company's settlement operations that
tarnished its image (the company, however, still owns a vineyard in the
occupied Syrian Golan Heights). As the international boycott,
divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel's rights violations
increasingly gains momentum, the exploitation of Palestinian labor by
Israeli companies operating on occupied land will surely come under
further scrutiny.